Cotton cleaning and separating machine



LE. MITCHELL. COTTON CLEANING AND SEPARATING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 17, 1921.

Patented Oct. 25, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

J. E. MITCHELL. COTTON CLEANING AND SEPARATING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED IAN. I7, 1921. 1,395,054. Patented Oct. 25, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN E. MITCHELL, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

Application filed January 17, 1921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN E. MlrrcHnLL, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented new and useful Improvements in Cotton Cleaning and Separating Machines, of which the following is a specification.

' This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in cotton cleaning and separating'machines and has special reference to a novel construction of dumping hull board. The broad object. of the invention is to permit the separation and recovery of the maximum amount of cotton from bolls and field cotton fedinto the'machine, by providing for the rapid discharge and removal from contact with the cotton and saw 'cylinderdf the hulls, trash, and other waste products fed'into the machine with the cotton: In Patent No. 1,360,132 there is dis-- closed "a construction wherein the space beshutting ofl'the feed of the cotton to the agitating chamber slightly in advance of the opening or discharge movement of the hull board. This, of course, is to prevent cotton being-fed into the agitating chamber and discharged therefrom through the wide opening provided by the hull board. While the machine of the patent referred to represents,-in principle: an advance in the art, it was found, nevertheless, that there were certain objections attendant upon its operation. One of these was a slight interference with the'uniforinity of the feed; another is that when the feed is shutoff, the saw cylinder takes the bulk of the load'of cotton out of the working chamber quickly enough, but

always leaves a considerable number of small loose floating locks of cotton which the teeth of the saws are unable to take hold of unless they form part of the'mass of a considerable quantity of cotton; and as a result,

these small locks of cotton, which continue to bounce around in the working chamber after the feed 'is shutoff, will ultimately escape to the hull conveyer when the hull board is open. 7

These objections are overcome by the present; construction in which a double hull board arrangement is used in connection Specification of Letters Patent.

COTTON CLEANING AND SEPARATING MACHINE.

Patented Oct. 25, 1921.

Serial No. 437,651.

with a single saw cylinder, and means are provided for opening and closing in alternation, the two hull boards whereby the waste incident to the escape of the class of cotton referred to is effectively prevented. In addition to the general object of the invention above set forth, other objects relate to the novel construction and arrangement of parts, as hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view through a machine constructed according to my invention taken just inside of the frame at one side of the machine, and showing the hull board construction with the cooperating cam shaft in cross-section; I Fig. 2 is a view in rear elevation of the hull boards and cam shaft, other parts of the machine being omitted; and

Fig/Sis a section taken at the opposite end of the cam shaft from that shown in Fig. 1, but showing the position of the hull boards reversed.

Referring now to the drawings, the numeral 1 indicates the casing of the machine having an opening in its top through which the bolls and cotton are supplied, the feed being controlled by the feed rolls 2. The numeral 3 indicates a breaker cylinder which operates to break the bolls apart and move the mixed cotton and bolls to an opening 4 in the breaking chamber whence this numeral 10 indicates a shaft which is rotated in any suitable manner and mounted on either end of which are two cams 11 and 12 rotated by the shaft 10 in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1. The numeral 13 indicates a hull board which is pivotally mounted at 14 above the cam shaft 10. On its under side, at either end,

this hull board is provided with projections 15 which projections are designed to cooperate with the respective cams 12. Each of cams 12 is provided with a cam shoulder 16 which is designed to cooperate with a cam face 17 of the corresponding pro'ections 15, and each of the cams 12 is urther provided with a raised or Working face 18 and reduced portions 19. In operation, when the shoulder 16 engages the cam faces 17 of the projections 15, the hull board 13 will be raised to the position shown in Fig. 3; that is to say, with the lower end of the hull board moved to its closest position with reference to the saw cylinder, and will remain in this position so long as the projections 15 ride on the raised portions 18 of the cam. WVhen' the projections 15 ride off of said raised portions and fall on to the reduced portions 19 of said cams,

the hull board falls to the open position or i that affording the widest opening between the saw cylinder and the lowerendof the hull board, such position being shown in Fig. 1. Each of the cams 11 is provided with a cam groove 20 and normal working face 21. The numeral 22 indicates a hull board pivotally mounted at 23 below the cam shaft 10. Formed rigid-with this hull board at either end are arms 24:, each of which is provided with a roller 25. which is adapted to coeperate with the corresponding 'cam's ll. In the rotaton of the cams '11 I when the rollers '25 are on theraised or working face 21 of cams 11, the hull board .22 will be in the raised or normal position erative position. These positions are shown '111 Fig. 1. Conversely, when the hull board 13 is in the raised or operative position,

the hull board 22 will be in the open or I discharge position. This latter position of the hullboard is shown in Fig. 8.

The opening between the lower edge of "the upper hull board 13 and the saw cylinder (is indicated by the numeral 26 and the openlng between the lower end of the hull board 22 and-the saw cylinder is indicated by thenumeral 27. The numeral .28 indica'tes-a conveyer for removing hulls andw'aste products from the machine.

When the upper hull -.board'13 is in its raised0rcl0sed "position, there is still space enough between'the lower end of the board and the sawlc yhnder to permit the continual discharge of, ninety per cent. or more of the hulls and trash through the opening 26,

but-this opening is not largeenoug-h to permit the escape of anycotton of value and,

of course, the large hulls and foreign substances cannot escape through this opening. When'this upper hull board is permitted to swing back away from the saw cylinder to the position shown in Fig. 1 to widen theopening 26 to permit the discharge of the accumulated large hulls and other sizable foreign matter, some cotton will likewise pass through'the opening; but during the time the upper hull board is in theopen or discharge position, the lower hullboard is in its closed position and will prevent the escape of such cotton through the opening 27, but at the same-time permit the free and continuous discharge of most of the. hulls or been discharged through said .opening by the movement of the hull board 13. Assoon as the upperghull' board is moved by the cams 12 to the closed position, then the lower hull board is openedto permit the discharge to the conveyer of the larger particles of hulls andtrash. 1 7

which have passed through the opening 26, I

The interval of time. between the closing" 7 by the cotton on they sawcylinder 7 are knocked back by the kicker roll Sand the cotton isremoved'from the saw cylinder by While I have illustrated'in' the drawings I a preferred .means of operating the hull boards in alternation, it .will .be obvious that the-broad idea. of theinvention is not limthe doifer roll 9 and discharged through the opening. 29 in the casing.

ited to the-special means described, and that 7 other ways of manipulatin 'gv the two hull boards to practice'my invention could-be used without departing from the spirit of my invention- I claim 7 1. In 'a'machine o f theclass described in 2. In amachineof-the class described, in

combination with the saw cylinder,'an. upper and a lower hull boardcoiiperat-ing there with and-the lower. edge-ofeach of which I defines.=the size of an opening pasti the saw cylinder, and means for widening said open- 7 ings in stages and in alternation.

' 3. In a machine of the: classdescribed in combination with a saw cylinder, an upper with and the lower edge of each of which defines the size of an opening past the saw cylinder, and means operating to lower the upper hull board away from the saw cylinder to discharge accumulated products upon the lower hull board while the latter hull board is maintained in a normal operative position, and then to return the upper hull board to normal position and to move the lower hull board to a discharge position, said means operating continuously to effect the alternate movements of the hull boards.

4. In a machine of the class described in combination with a saw cylinder, an upper and lower hull board cooperating therewith, and the lower edge of each of which defines the size of an opening past the saw cylinder, a rotatable cam shaft having cams thereon cooperating with the respective hull boards, said cams operating to alternately lower and then raise one of said hull boards maintaining the other in normal position, thereafter to lower and then raise the latter hull board While maintaining the first hull board in operative position. 7

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN E. MITCHELL. 

